Bad Influence
by Selbyzipper
Summary: Set directly after Season 2, a little of how some of the characters change over the winter plus my own musings. Carol & Daryl's relationship grows.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I am already sad that we have to wait until February to see more TWD, so I fanfic to get me through the hiatus. This should be a multi chapter, I have it plotted out to about 6 chapters. Your reviews would be lovely! Thanks for reading!**

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**Bad Influence**

Four nights had past since leaving the farm. Rick was only speaking when it was required. Camp was moved daily, and silence was kept at night. Daryl hunted each morning, but due to the herd's recent pass through, there wasn't much to catch. Two squirrels for ten people just wasn't enough. Carol did her best dividing the food, giving Lori and Carl most of her portion, a growing boy and a pregnant woman needed to eat.

Her own hunger is what fueled her resolve to convince Rick they needed to scavenge, there had to be homes somewhere, with canned goods, much needed blankets, medical supplies and clothes. She stepped quietly toward him.

"Hey" she spoke softly to Daryl as he cleaned his kills.

"What?" he snapped at her with out looking up from his bloodied hands. He was still not speaking to her after her 'man of honor' comment.

"I could use your help, I want to ask Rick if we can scavenge some nearby homes, but I don't think he'll be as receptive if you don't back me up" she barreled through her thoughts before he could interrupt.

"Why would my opinion matter?" he looked up at her, the angry tone still in his voice.

"Because, he looks to you when we move, Rick trusts your judgment for where to camp. He'll listen, if you agree." Carol's empty stomach growled and gurgled like it knew she was talking about food.

"I ain't your errand boy" He glared.

"That's not what I am asking you. We need food, blankets, tents. I am just asking you to back me up. Rick has been avoiding any city. Hell he won't even let us pick through any cars we find, just get the gas and go. We won't last like this."

Daryl sighed and stuck his knife into the log next to half of a plump squirrel. "Fine, but you are eating today. Stop worrying about everyone else's shit and take care of your own". He stood, wiping guts onto his already soiled jeans.

They headed toward Rick as he stood pouring over an old local map they had found in the glove compartment of Maggie's car. "Gotta sec?" Daryl interrupted his thoughts; Rick looked at them for a moment before staring at the map again.

"Yeah, I was thinking we head west from here, might be able to get some fishing at that creek" Rick scratched his chin, looking at Daryl questioningly. Carol smirked at him. Rick had just proven her right.

"Not gonna find much more than fish if that's the way that heard was heading" Daryl grumbled.  
"What do you want from me Daryl?" Rick was tired and annoyed and it showed in is voice. "I am trying to keep this group safe."

"Safe is one thing, starving is another" Daryl raised his voice, the rest of the camp had come to a silent stand still watching argument.

Carol pushed forward as they bickered peeking at the map. "What about this?" Carol traced her finger on the map in a slow arch from where they were camped to south of where Rick wanted to camp without looking up. "We could scavenge through these two small towns, pick up some necessities, and Ed and his brother had a hunting cabin somewhere around there. It's nothing big, just a large room, a well, a fire place and an old coal stove, maybe we could take a few days to recover there." she was so quiet it looked like she was talking to the map and not the two men standing near her.

"Do you think you could find the cabin?" Rick asked.

"I've only been there once, Ed wouldn't let me go, but Donnie, Ed's brother, shot him in the foot once and they made me and Sophia drive out there to pick him up, wouldn't let Ed bleed in his truck" She smirked slightly at the memory of Ed crying in the backseat of her SUV.

"It's a great idea, the cabin, and shootin' that prick" Daryl agreed glancing at Carol.

"Then we'll head straight there, getting into those towns could be too dangerous" Rick drew a straighter line across the map.

"No." Carol looked up, surprised at her own voice. Daryl nudged her softly with his shoulder. "We smell, we're hungry, we're cold. Damn, there three women in this group that are going to need tampons at some point. Your wife needs vitamins, we probably all should have some if we can find enough. I need tools to cook with. Stop being so damn selfish"

There was a long pause as Carol caught her breath and looked around the group. "What?"

Rick assessed the faces of everyone. Carol was right; they were never going to be able to live like this. "Ok, but we are all on high alert when we scavenge. I want everyone in teams, no one goes anywhere alone, we are silent and efficient, I want out of populated areas as quick as possible" Rick announced to everyone and turned back to his map like a security blanket.

"Thank you." Carol spoke softly to him.

That evening they huddled around the small fire with T-Dog on watch. Daryl had cut the squirrel meat up and skewered the pieces on 10 small sticks, each person roasting their own few bites of food. He sat next to Carol, watching her slowly turning her meat to cook it evenly. "Yours looks better than mine" he held up his, almost raw on one side, black as charcoal on the other.

"And that is why I cook," she grinned shaking her head. Carol handed him the perfectly cooked meat and took his, turning the raw side to the heat.

"I can't take this," Daryl started.

Cutting him off Carol smiled and gestured to the last raw skewer. "T-Dog hasn't eaten yet"

With a slight snicker he handed her the raw meat and began to tear into his now perfect squirrel skewer. "You're with me tomorrow."

"What?"

"T offered to teach Carl how to keep watch of the cars, everyone else is going to pair off, I want you with me. You keep quiet, move fast and you know what we need. You're no burden"

"Oh, okay." Carol blushed slightly at the complement. "Gotta take this..." she jumped up and carried the food over to T-dog sitting on top of one of the SUVs.

When she returned to the fire's warmth she was chewing violently on her last piece of squirrel and had her sweater pulled tightly around her. The temperature was dropping nightly as winter crept up on them. After everyone had finished eating they were curling up in small groups around the fire to keep warm and try to rest.

"You gave him your meat didn't you?" Daryl asked with out looking up.

"I don't have any idea what you are talking about." she sat down near the fire, still shivering.

"Here." Daryl tossed his jacket over her then settled on the ground near her,.

"Daryl, I can't..."

"You can and you will. Sleep. We need to be alert tomorrow"

"Thank you." she said quietly.

"You did good today, we have a solid plan, and that was all you." Daryl let a small smile play on his lips, "and Thanks for lettin' me ruin your dinner."

A small quiet giggle escaped her lips as she laid her head down to sleep. Daryl curling up behind her, close enough for them to share body heat, yet not close enough to touch. Tomorrow they would scavenge and look for shelter.


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N.: Sorry this took some time, there was a line at the end that was irking me. I really appreciate all the feedback! Hope you enjoy. Please review!**

**Disclaimer! I own nothing of TWD. **

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The next morning the first town that they had reached had been a complete bust. Half of the town had fallen to a large fire and the rest had been picked almost clean. They had pulled a small pile of unmarked cans from an overturned car and a stack of sheets from a dryer in the skeleton of a motel. The only good luck they seemed to have in that town was its emptiness. Not a single walker was spotted as they dug through the ruined square.

As they moved through to the next stop Carol rode on the back of Daryl's bike. He could feel that her posture was different on the second leg of their trip. When they left camp that morning she was excited and energetic, she sat up straight and hardly held on to him as they drove. Now she held him tightly around the waist, her cheek pressed into his back, her whole body slightly slouched.

"Hey, uh..." He called over his shoulder to her, not used to giving any comfort, "We gotta remember to look for a can opener in the next town, can't wait to see what mystery we'll be eatin' later." He felt her arms relax slightly and her body shook like she was either laughing or crying.

"Let's just pray it isn't dog food!" Carol smiled as her lips brushed his ear as she spoke.

o

Thanks to Glenn having relatives in the area, in the next town they were expecting a small pharmacy and general store, a hardware store, a diner and a thrift shop. It had had been discussed over breakfast which team went to which store. Hershel and Beth would take the pharmacy, Maggie and Glenn would empty the dinner, Rick would head into the hardware store, which left Carol and Daryl the thrift shop. Carl, Lori and T-dog would be keeping watch and load the SUVs.

The street was empty when they pulled up. Carol was off the bike and running to the back of Rick's vehicle before they had fully stopped. Daryl ran behind her quickly grabbing her elbow, "What the hell?"

"Sorry, I had an idea! Here." she shoved a sheet into his hands and quickly passes out the rest. "We can tie them up like a sack and carry more stuff out of the stores!"

Daryl gave a quiet grumble before admitting, "Okay, it's a good idea. Just don't run off on me; nothin's been cleared yet."

"Sorry..." she trailed off.

"It's fine, let's move fast, it's too damn quiet here" Daryl staked off ahead of her toward the thrift store. "I'm going in first, don't follow me until you hear me whistle".

He quickly ducked through the door, scanning aisle after aisle for signs of walkers. Large portions of the clothing were missing and a few displays in the home goods section were over turned. Two walkers in red smocks were lying dead near the emergency exit, each with a bullet to the head. He let out a low whistle and Carol popped in the door, heading straight to the clothing.

Thanks to always doing the laundry she had a general idea of everyone's size and made quick work of the men's section. She grabbed two pairs of jeans for each man, flannel button downs and a few Dickie's work shirts that Ed used to prefer, tee shirts and even a few pairs of wool socks that had obviously been worn, all stuffed into to sheet sack she had tied up. For the women she grabbed similar things, jeans, heavy sweaters, two large wool trench coats. She grabbed every single undergarment left on the racks promising herself to wash every single pair of panties herself before handing them out.

"What do we need from over here?" Daryl called out to her.

"Blankets, towels, and it there is anything cast iron over there I'll kiss ya" she laughed.

"Won't they find cookin' stuff at the diner?" He huffed at her joke.

"They will, but cast iron will cook better over a fire" she slowed to a stop in front of a low cut short red sweater dress. Ed would never let her even entertain the thought of that dress. Just the haft second thought of Ed made her grab the sweater and shove it in her sack. "I'm done."

"Then come help me, I don't know what half this shit is" Daryl called back.

Carol dropped her bag by the open door and turned back to Daryl, "Just a second, I'm going to check if there is anything useful behind the counter". She scooted through the pathway to find one register with a pen cup stuffed with dry pens, pencils, a box cutter, and a double-sided screwdriver. Pocketing the tools, Carol hopped on the counter and swiveled around then yelped out in surprise to see a rotting walker pass through the open door just feet I front of her.

It used to be a middle-aged man and if his nametag and greasy coveralls proved true he had been a mechanic named Bruce. It had a gaping wound in its gut, skin and intestine hanging out with pieces of debris stuck to them and stinking of death. Her yelp calling attention to herself, it reached rotted fingertips toward Carol, dirty teeth snapping at its fresh meal. She fearfully yelped again, pulling herself back away from Bruce. She toppled off of the counter, hitting the floor hard with her tailbone, her face scraping the unfinished wooden shelving.

Daryl burst out of the home goods aisle, crossbow slung across his back, a shouldered sack filled with towels and blankets and a heavy cast iron stockpot hanging from his left hand. With barely a thought he ran up and swung the pot, caving in the side of the walkers head. For good measure he took the pot in two hands and smashed the rest of the walker's head. "Carol?" the adrenaline surging in his system let his voice louder than he preferred.

"Down here. I fell pretty hard" Carol pulled herself up to stand. She had splinters and a bright red friction burn on her face and groaned as she touched her lower back. She limped around the counter.

"You bit?" he took her arms and began inspecting for broken skin.

"No, no bites, When I saw him I backed up a little too quick though. Can you help?" she pointed to her butt. The small screwdriver she had grabbed had pushed through her pocket and punctured her in the right butt cheek.

He glanced down at the blood stain forming, "What do you need me to do?"

"Just pull it out, I'll pack it with one of those tee shirts and Hershel can look at it when we make camp."

Daryl was obviously uncomfortable. He twitched slightly as he looked back and forth between her eyes and her ass. "It's gonna hurt." he stated the fact.

"I expect so, but I can't climb on the back of your bike with a screwdriver hanging out of my ass."

"Who says you can get all that blood on my bike?" he smirked.

"Just do it." Carol stated firmly. She griped the edge of the counter and waited.

Daryl knew that pulling it out at the wrong angle would hurt more than it needed to so he placed his left hand on her butt cheek holding her still, his right swiftly yanking the metal straight out the way it went in. He dropped the screwdriver and rooted through his sack of towels pulling out an frayed cream hand towel. He bunched it up and with out thinking shoved it down her pants. He was impressed with how stoically Carol took it all.

The first sound Carol made was a small girlish giggle. She gestured to where his hand was still resting on her butt. "If I knew this was all it would take to get you to check out my ass I woulda sat on a screwdriver a long time ago. Can we be done in here?"

Pulling his hand away like he had touched fire, and his facing burning with blush, he just nodded his reply. He picked up the cast iron pot, stepped over the dead thing at Carol's feet and headed to the exit grabbing the sack she had dropped there minutes earlier with Carol limping after him.

He was immediately searching for T-Dog. He was supposed to be on watch, that walker should never have been in the store, let alone the store front. "What the Hell?" he growled at T-dog who was helping Maggie and Glenn load boxes of dry goods into the back of one of the SUVs. "Doin' a shitty job of watching man."

"What happened?" He was openly surprised at Carol's blooded face and obvious limp.

"Walker came in off the street, almost got her" Daryl chucked the sacks of stuff at his feet. "Take this shit, we're gonna scout ahead for a someplace to camp." He purposely dropped the stockpot on the top of the sack of towels leaving a bloody brown smear to make his point. "Come on." He grumbled at Carol as he headed to his bike.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So. This took forever and it is super short. I got into a rut with the middle of this one; it felt a little too much "See Spot Run". I think I finally got the kinks out. I also got super distracted by 2 fantastic stories, "The Choice" by Gone Random (really fantastic story, 100% recommended) and for a good laugh, "If It Weren't For Bad Luck, I'd Have No Luck At All" by Surplus Imagination (this is a hard subject for humor and she does it perfectly!). I really appreciate the encouragement from everyone!**

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At daybreak Rick, Carol and Daryl studied a more current map Beth had found in the pharmacy. "I'm positive that the cabin is off of that road." she pointed, "I just don't remember where the turn off is"

"It's a good start. We'll find it. If we don't come across any trouble we could be there in less than an hour." Rick nodded approvingly. "Let's roll" he called out.

Daryl glanced down at Carol's blood stained jeans, "Shouldn't you change or something? You got all those new clothes..."

"I'd rather wait till I can wash up and do laundry; thrift store stuff is always dirty. No sense in getting an infection if it can be avoided." Carol grinned at his concern," Unless you don't want me dirtying up your bike with my blood, and if that's the case I'm sure I could ride with Rick or T-Dog"

"No, I just..." he trailed off, not really sure where his concern came from. Dixons don't care about anything. "Fine. Let's move then. Let's find this damn cabin." Daryl made for his bike gesturing for Carol to follow.

She took a quick detour to one of the boxes of food in the back of T-Dog's truck, glanced around, then shoved a small package into her pocket then headed to the bike. She saw Daryl watching her and shrugged, "I didn't eat breakfast, too busy searching that map. Did you?" he shook his head no in reply. "I'll share" she pulled out the corner of a beef jerky package of her pocket.

"Why are you being so secretive about it?" Daryl questioned.

"It's the good kind. Barbecue flavor." she grinned.

He straddled his motorcycle and out stretched his hand for payment. Again she glanced around before opening and splitting the package between them. He gave her a small smirk, "You're right, this is the good kind."

Carol climbed on behind Daryl wrapping her arms lightly around his waist as the last of their group finished loading up. Daryl's motorcycle headed up their caravan on their slow crawl through mostly clear roads; only stopping to siphon gas from the few abandoned cars they came across.

Daryl leaned his head back and yelled over the growl of the bike," Any of this look familiar?"

"Not really. It was dark when I was last here" she yelled back.

He was slowing his bike down and he spun his head back a smirked at her, "Look." He nodded his head of to the side of the road. There was an over grown dirt road veering off to the right, a small wood burnt sign hung from an iron stake, 'Peletier' and 'No Trespassing' swayed in the wind. Signaling to the rest of the caravan Daryl slowed the bike to a stop.

Carol was beaming at the sign, she was proud of finally feeling like she could contribute to the group. "There it is!" she gestured to the path. "It is a bit overgrown, but we'll make it down easily!" The caravan turned and slowly crawled over the uneven dirt path. They slowed to a stop as the cabin revealed itself from the trees.

A fire pit, with a small crackling fire stood in the center of the clearing. From a tall tree on the edge of the tree line hung a small doe draining its blood on to the forest floor. A rusted out blue and white Ford pick up was parked backed up to the side of a large wooden cabin.

Daryl through his arm up to stop the rest of the group at the first signs of the possible living. Daryl stood pulling his crossbow at the ready. Rick, Glenn, Maggie and T-Dog each with weapon drawn joined him at the opening to the clearing. The rest of the women, Carl and Hershel came to stand behind them.

"Spread out. Check everything. Be on alert, someone has been here, recently." Rick stated firmly.

"Why don't we just go knock on the door?" Glenn asked.

"And get shot in the face? No thanks." T-Dog replied.

"Carl, Stay with your mother." Rick commanded.

"Uh… Excuse me?" Carol interrupted, "I think I know…"

She was cut off by a gunshot hitting the tree bark next to her. Quickly the group scattered for cover. Carl ushered Lori, Beth and Hershel behind the first car, Carol crouched behind Daryl's bike, Glenn and Maggie ducked behind nearby trees, T-Dog dove for the ground while both Rick and Daryl took a knee while aiming their weapons at the cabin where the shot would have come from.

"You're trespassin'." A loud booming male voice called out.

"We're just looking for some kind of safety." Rick called out.

"Find somewhere else."

"This ain't your land." Daryl stated calmly glancing at Carol.

"Like hell it ain't!" The voice yelled angrily, "Now you need to be moving on before me and my boys decide to stop being so hospitable."

"Donnie? Donnie Peletier?" Carol stood tall and called out stepping a few feet into the clearing.

"Aunt Carol?" a teen boy popped his head out of the door to the cabin.

"D.J?" Carol gasped and covered her mouth, "My God! I can't believe it!"

A large lumbering man stepped out behind the teen with a younger boy next to him holding a rifle still trained on Rick. The man looked very similar to his brother Ed, longer hair, slightly taller, a bit leaner but a Peletier with out a doubt. "Where's my brother? And your girl?"

With tears in her eyes Carol just shook her head no. Donnie shifted the barrel of the gun to her. "What happened? Tell me Ed's walking around out there and we might have a bit of a problem" he walked toward her with a slight swagger.

"It's a long story, and we'll tell you everything, but can we relax a little here?" Rick tried to calm the situation down.

"You're gonna stay out of this." Donnie shot a look at Rick, then retrained on Carol taking her face in his hand turning her face to him, "You're gonna talk, or we're gonna start shootin."

"Please… Donnie. It was nothing, he was attacked when he was sleeping." Carol struggled to keep her fear bottled up. With everything that had happened over the last few months she had forgotten the fear that came with being around Ed or Donnie.

"Where were you?"

"I… I wasn't there." She whispered.

"So it shoulda been you, huh?" Donnie asked.

"Dad, please stop?" The older boy tried interrupting, but was easily brushed off by his father.

"No." Carol took a deep breath. "No. I'm glad your brother is gone." She straightened her posture and stared straight into Donnie's eyes.

"You bitch." Donnie pulled his right hand back and Carol flinched slightly, but before contact to her face was made a bolt from Daryl's crossbow stabbed through his hand. Donnie released Carol and screamed out in pain and rage.

"Shut up." Daryl moved closer without blinking and another bolt trained on Donnie, "We have a vet with us who can fix up your hand. You've got a choice. Either you calm down and back away from her and we'll help you out, or I put the next one through your eye. Make the call ass hole."

Donnie glanced around for the first time since stepping out of the cabin. He had four guns trained on him and every person standing there had some weapon, each looking ready to fight.

"Fine. But you better pull your own around here. This ain't no bed and breakfast."

Donnie glared at Daryl.

Hershel stepped forward, "Lets get a look at that hand."

Donnie lead him toward the cabin. "I've got some whiskey, and I'm drinking it before you do a damn thing with this" both of his sons followed them into the cabin.

Daryl and Rick moved quickly to Carol's side. "Are you okay?" Rick asked.

"Fine, shaken up, but fine" Carol said quietly.

"Sorry about shootin' so close to your face…" Daryl tried apologizing.

"You never miss, its fine." Carol lightly touched his arm and looked him straight in the eye, "I need to ask you something."

"What do you need?"

"I need to learn to defend myself. That's never going to happen again. Will you teach me?" Carol squeezed Daryl's arm trying to show him how much she needed this.

"Good. We'll start tomorrow." Daryl smirked at her, "When I'm done with you you'll be able to take Rick down."

"Ha!" Rick laughed, "Until then, Carol, stay away from your brother–in-law if you can. I doesn't seem the type to roll over that easy."

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**Until Next time! (Hope you don't hate my O.C.s too much!) Reviews are awesome, and look! The button is right there!**


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